Julia Banks rejects calls to name and shame her bullies, calls for quotas

By Latika Bourke

September 12, 2018 — 11.10pm

Liberal MP Julia Banks has ridiculed calls for her to detail the allegations of bullying and intimidation she made in the days after Malcolm Turnbull's ousting as prime minister.

In a speech to Parliament, the backbencher broke the silence she has maintained since making her bombshell claims and announced she was quitting the marginal seat of Chisholm in Victoria - a long-held Labor seat - which she won in 2016.

Liberal MPs Julia Banks and Julie Bishop during Question Time on Wednesday.

Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

Ms Banks did not repeat her claim of bullying and intimidation but instead hit out at "a culture of appalling behaviour" and said the term was an "umbrella descriptor for: bullying, intimidation, harassment, sexual or otherwise, or a lack of integrity."

"In my political journey, a culture of political behaviour has been widespread, pervasive and undermining - like white ants," she told the House of Representatives.

Ms Banks, a corporate lawyer, said the reaction to her statement, including calls for her to detail her allegations, has stunned her "for so many reasons."

"From across the political divide there was both a groundswell of heartwarming support received from both in and outside this place to reprisals and retribution, the old 'nothing to see here', no formal complaints, no evidence name and shame etcetera," she said.

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"Australians have bought none of it," she declared. "In fact this reaction has just made the support from Australian men and women even more emboldened - I am reading their emails. Thank you," she said.

No Liberal female MPs have made a formal complaint to whip Nola Marino or made a specific accusation. The Family first turned Liberal senator Lucy Gichui had threatened to name and shame the perpetrators under parliamentary privilege but has now said she was not bullied by anyone in Canberra during the spill, according to Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Mr Morrison, a former party director, has notably refused to back the claims of bullying and stressed the "torrid" nature of politics and intense pressure leadership challenges bring on MPs. He has also refused to back calls from some within the Liberal party to copy Labor's policy of quotas which has led to the federal caucus reaching equal representation between men and women.

The Liberal party's representation has gone backwards in contrast.

Ms Banks said quotas would be a "reset mechanism to create an "equal playing field" between men and women in Parliament, which she said was "five to ten years behind the business world."

"The meritocracy argument is completely and utterly flawed - there are an equal number of meritorious Liberal women out there in the real world as there are men, but they won't come if the barriers to entry and mountains to climb are too high," she said.

"It's really simple, if you only have a man running and you can't find a women, find one, they're out there," she said.

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"Only gender quotas will work in politics, not targets because you cannot tie political office to salaries and incentives as you can in business,

"Quotas are not demeaning to women and nor will women will be regarded as a quota girl," she said.

Fairfax Media is aware of at least one Cabinet Minister and Liberal MP who refers to female Labor MPs as "quota girls" - an insinuation they are there simply to fill a position rather than due to their talents.